A bad proposal

Trump ought to focus on immigration reform.

Copyright 2017: Houston Chronicle

August 6, 2017

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller talks to reporters about President Trump's support for creating a "merit-based immigration system" at the White House. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller was just the right man to announce his boss' support for drastically limiting legal immigration in a contentious news conference last week. Conversant and apparently comfortable with the anti-immigrant bias of America's white nationalists, young Miller revels in his unofficial role as the president's teeth-bared attack dog on immigration issues. (He's the author of his boss's notorious Muslim travel ban.)

The legislation Miller was trotted out to tout at last week's news conference is the so-called Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, or RAISE. Sponsored by U.S. Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., the bill would slash legal immigration to the United States by as much as 50 percent over the next decade. The number of green cards granted annually would be reduced to about 540,000 from the current level of about 1 million.

It also would replace the current immigration system with a "merit-based" point system and would prioritize highly skilled immigrants by limiting the ability of green-card holders to bring family members to the U.S. In addition, it would eliminate a visa lottery system that helps immigrants from countries less represented in the U.S. immigrant population. Those favored under RAISE would be English speakers with higher levels of education and high-paying job offers.

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Cotton and Perdue actually introduced their bill last April, but it went nowhere, in large part because most of their fellow senators recognize the spurious claims at the heart of the legislation. Here in Houston and throughout the country, the economy is humming right along, with low unemployment numbers and a need for workers, highly skilled and otherwise. Most economists agree that immigrants are not taking jobs from American workers. As much as the nativists among us hate to admit it, a healthy economy needs immigrants.

Most political observers agree that the White House has latched on to the Cotton/Perdue bill at this particular moment during his increasingly troubled administration merely to reassure his hard-right base. That's unfortunate, because our nation's immigration policy desperately needs revision. It's ridiculously complicated, dysfunctional and unfair.

The need is bigger than billions for border security, as U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is proposing, or punitive measures for would-be legal immigrants, as the White House favors. Instead of sending out firebrand Miller to fan the flames of the culture wars, the president ought to be working with Congress to fix a broken system.